Do You Care?
by CJS51703
Summary: When Mettaton comes home one evening from his tour, both Papyrus and Roxanne are excited. But Roxanne has a few things to get off of her chest...


*****What's this? Yet another story? Well, that's kinda what we're here for... Anyways, this is an idea that's been in my head. It features Roxanne from my other story "Oh! My True Love", so you kinda have to read that so you know who this random little girl is. If you have read that and know exactly who she is, then she belongs to yours truly, Papyrus and Mettaton belong to Toby Fox, and let's get down to it!**

Roxanne got into the back of the car that always picked her up from school one afternoon.

"Hello, Roxanne! How was your day today?" Papyrus exclaimed in his usual exuberant tone. Roxanne looked into the mirror hanging above the dash to read his lips. Or lack thereof. "It was good," she said.

"It's about to be even more good! As you know, your dad was supposed to come home precisely one month from this very day. Well, last night after you had gone to sleep, Mettaton had called the Great Father Papyrus And due to some... technical difficulties... he is coming home a month early. Which is today! So I volunteered to pick him up from the airport. And of course, you had to be brought along as well," Papyrus explained happily.

Roxanne lit up. "Yay! What time do we have to be at the airport to pick up Dad?" she asked.

"At six, we'll be at the gate," Papyrus decided.

"Okay," Roxanne said, her voice still chipper. She just couldn't wait.

XxX

Papyrus and Roxanne were at the gate by five-thirty. "It never hurts to be early. That's what I've always thought, at least," Papyrus explained as he sat down at the gate.

"Don't you and Uncle Sans argue about that all the time?" Roxanne recalled from post occurrences.

"He always claims better late than never. But the Great Father Papyrus begs to differ," Papyrus grumbled.

Roxanne giggled. Then, things fell into an awkward silence. "So...what do we do for the next half-hour?" Roxanne eventually asked.

Papyrus looked around. "...would you like to go get a drink?" he eventually suggested. "Sure," Roxanne agreed.

XxX

It was currently nine o' clock. Papyrus was laying across a few chairs, holding Roxanne, who was laying on top of him and using his rib cage as a pillow. They had both fallen asleep while waiting. The two were adamant to be at the gate when Mettaton came home. So, they had set up camp there.

No matter how many annoyed looks they received for taking up the space, they were staying there.

Roxanne clung tightly to Papyrus. _Where is Dad...he cares about us, doesn't he..._ came her thoughts through her sleep. She often wondered that, considering how she only saw Mettaton a little bit of the time. She shifted a little bit in her place at the thought. _Maybe he doesn't...maybe he doesn't..._ her thoughts pressed harder.

Her eye sockets fluttered open. She looked around at the people in the airport that passed by. Then, she turned her attention to Papyrus, who was still asleep with his mouth wide open. With a quiet sigh, Roxanne fell back asleep. But she was shortly after gently poked in the side.

"What is it..." she said, still sounding groggy.

Mettaton EX was standing there. _One moment before I hug you. I want to do something real quick to your daddy. You have to get off of him, though,_ he signed, using an ability he'd learned specifically for Roxanne's sake.

The hybrid girl nodded and stood up. Mettaton put two fingers against Papyrus' neck before giving him a little zap of electricity. He sprung up with an undignified squawk before falling into the floor. He scrambled to stand up.

"What the?!" he exclaimed. "Dad's home," Roxanne said, already clinging onto Mettaton. "Glad to see me, darling?" the robot asked, his arm around his daughter.

Papyrus lit up. "Very!" he said a bit too loudly. He nearly knocked Mettaton over in a hug, kissing him on his jet-black lip. Still ignoring the bizarre looks given to them, they stayed in their hug.

"As much as I hate to interrupt this moment, it's about time for the luggage from my flight to come back. Besides, I brought back presents for both of you from every city I toured in~" Mettaton said.

"Yay!" Papyrus and Roxanne alike cheered. "But you'll get them tomorrow," Mettaton added on. "Aw..." Papyrus and Roxanne whined.

Mettaton couldn't help but laugh.

XxX

On the ride home, Mettaton had explained his lateness. As it turned out, his cell phone had died, so he had been unable to call his family to inform them that his flight had been cancelled at the last minute and that the next available one home was two hours later. And even that one was delayed by an hour because the crew was caught in traffic.

"But wouldn't they already be there?" Papyrus had asked. "That's what I was thinking, darling," was what Mettaton had grimly replied with.

But now, they were all at home. Roxanne was in her pajamas, sitting in her bed, the only light being the lamp on her nightstand.

"Hey, you were supposed to be asleep earlier on," Mettaton said upon sticking his head in the doorway. "I know. But... I wanna talk to you about something. Come over here," Roxanne said, patting the spot next her.

Curious, Mettaton sat down. "What's on your mind, star shine?" he asked.

"Well... how do I put this..." Roxanne mumbled, brushing her jet-black hair out of her face. "You're gone a lot," she eventually stated. Mettaton raised an eyebrow. "Yes," he said, wondering where this was going. There was a silence between the two for a few moments.

"Do you still care about me and Daddy as much as you used to?" Roxanne asked quickly, decided to just rip the Band-Aid off.

Mettaton was surprised that he was even asked that question. "Roxanne, I care about you two no matter what, and more than my words can say. Why do you ask?" he asked.

"It's just... like I said, you're away a lot. More often than you're at home. And don't get me wrong, it's pretty awesome that you're a mega superstar who goes all over the world to sing and dance for a bazillion people. I'm not telling you to stop, because I know you love it and I don't wanna get in the way of it. But do you maybe... could you maybe... see if you can be here with us a little more? Me and Daddy miss you when you're gone," Roxanne said.

Mettaton felt a wave of guilt crash over him. Perhaps he was away from home more than he should have been. "Of course, star shine. And do you wanna know what my agent can do if he fights back about this and says that I'm ridiculous for wanting more family time?" he asked.

"What?" Roxanne asked.

Mettaton couldn't suppress his smirk. "I'll tell him that he can kiss my shiny, metal butt," he said.

Roxanne laughed, then yawned. "Bed time, star shine," Mettaton said. He tried to get up, but was stopped by a small hand grabbing his wrist.

"Wait. I may be too old for it, but... can you stay in here with me? Just for tonight?" Roxanne asked. Mettaton smiled. "Move over, because I take up some space," he said.

He laid down, holding tightly to Roxanne before he turned off the lamp.

 _I love you,_ Roxanne signed against Mettaton's chest before falling asleep. Mettaton felt warm inside, despite being made of metal. _I_

 _love you even more,_ he signed against Roxanne's chest before he kissed her forehead.

Before he fell asleep, he saw her smile.

 *****Time for the explanations. I figured that Papyrus would refer to himself as "The Great Father Papyrus" around Roxanne because, well, he's her father. As for why Mettaton's flight got delayed for a third hour? That happened to be on my flight home from New York earlier this year. Finally, if you want to see a picture of Roxanne, then she's up on my Amino page, which is under the same username. I know this story isn't the best, but show some mercy and don't judge it too harshly. Anyways, it's one in the morning, so I'm heading to bed. Be sure to leave a review on the way out and I'll see you all in the next one! Bye!**


End file.
